Andy, i have ised Snapper self propelled mowers, both professionally and on my own lawn, for over 30 years. I would not use anything else. I have used Toro before, however there seem to be too many working parts to mess up on the Toro mowers. A Honda engine is really good also. Snapper is currently owned by bridge and Stratton. unfortunately, snapper has also licensed MTD to manufacture mowers, using the snapper name, to be sold by big box stores such as Home Depot and Walmart. Both places sell snapper walk behind self-propelled mowers for anywhere from $300-$800. although manufactured by MTD, these big box Machines are built by the same plan as any snapper. Unfortunately however, many times the MTD mowers do not hold up or cut as efficiently as the snapper that you buy from a dealer.; and the prices from a big box store or a dealer are virtually the same, the only difference being that your dealer will not usually sell a more in the $300 range as well a big box store. So, that may be where your problem starts. snapper is known for its quality of cut, and they have never let me down. I am currently doing professional lawn work with a residential grade self-propelled walk behind mower, and it does a great job and has held up really well for two seasons. that said, there is one thing you might try. Snapper makes a set of small lift blades, about an inch and a half long, that bolt on to their regular mower blades. They actually look like little fins on the end of your mower blade. Generally, they run about $20-$30 a set. I have been using the same set for two years. That little thin on the blade creates extra lift on the grass. When you're cutting grass with really thin blades, these lifts work wonders. They literally suck the grass up so that the blade can cut. You can only purchase these little blades from a snapper dealer. That would be my next step. Past that, if you purchased your mower at either Walmart or Home Depot, you can take it back. If you paid $700 for that machine, you can get your money back and visit a dealer where you can, for the same price, purchase a mower that is actually manufactured by snapper. They do a much better job. 30 years ago, when I first started mowing lawns professionally, you never saw a bad review of snapper machine. Since the licensing agreement with MTD however, bad reviews have become quite common. Generally when you see a bad review of a snapper mower, including the rear engine rider, the more being complained about was actually manufactured by MTD and not by snapper. If you consult a dealer, they will tell you that very thing. That said, even the best companies can manufacture Elimon every once in a while. If you purchased your lawn more from a dealer they will make good on that purchase. They are required to do so by snapper, or find their dealership in jeopardy It might be worth consulting a dealer to have him check out what maybe going on with the mower. Often whatever the problem is they have seen it 1 million times and will recognize it the minute you tell them about it. Good luck. I hope this experience has not colored your view of Snapper machines too badly.

Yes I actually did take the baffles off. Like I said I tried everything. The machine come with the Husq mulch blades. The gators work better. Have them on now. When the machine was delivered the deck pitch was so extreme. It mulched but didn’t cut nice. ( I’m figuring the delivered machine with the steep pitch was deliberate. Maybe the factory told them that helps??????? )They put the mulch kit on. Can’t see a reputable service center not checking Blade height and all. Anyways. It’s when I adjusted the pitch to recommend setting that the cut was nice but it would leave a strip of cut grass but not mulched down the middle of the path. Even when it was short or dry or thin. Funny thing is last night the grass was high and wet and it seems to mulch better when it’s wet with that extreme pitch. It did leave some clumps but it’s what you would expect to see with it that high. But the clumps where mulched up. Only had to go over a couple little spots twice instead of the whole yard. As far as adjusting the front up. Just for the hell of it I took a path going backward Last night. Left more clumps of grass. Once went backwards with a level deck and it leaves a thin strip of grass to the right of the mower like my old Honda self propelled mower does. So for now that’s my fix. I’ll sharpen those blade up again. That will help with the cut. I’ll pay attention to anything posted. Maybe someone figured out a better fix for this. Thanks with your feed back.

Hauling in the back of a Subaru, reminds me of hauling in the back of a 80 Honda Civid, oh the memories.... Hubby suggests getting online and find the ID56 from Purdue, it has alot of knowledge packed into a less than $50 book. No there not alot of organic knowledge, but it does tell about which veggie needs what. You can order the book from Purdue, it is well worth it. I don't know what you might have available, compost/manure wise, but I would definitely check it out. Maybe run a free ad asking for it. You might need to pay for delivery, but you would need to haul it yourself otherwise. Garbage bags, if need be. We just bought an old dump truck to haul ours, it needs lots of work, but hopefully by spring we'll have it running. I have found that it will take about a year before you see a big difference in your produce from time of application. Remember, this year was especially bad for produce, for everyone that I know. Hopefully next year will be better. Good luck.

Hummm. I'm really surprised you had a problem with All-Clad. I've always heard good things about them. They probably slipped by some Quality Control person who had a bad weekend. I agree that a high price tag nowadays doesn't mean you'll get a perfect product. A few years ago I bought a set of $69 WearEver stainless from Amazon. I think they're made in the USA---Hooray! They arrived in perfect shape; pretty to look at; a good weight and not a dent, ding, or scratch anywhere and easy on the checkbook. The packaging was the best. Nothing could move in that box. They just can't hold a candle to the performance of Scanpan, but I didn't expect they would. Well, my second set of Scanpan arrived 95% okay except for a scuff mark on a pot where the handle of another rubbed against it (probably on the way from Denmark!). This duplicated the same scuff mark problem as the first shipment. The scuff is minor, just aggravating. All they have to do is pack the things correctly! It's certainly not rocket science. All the pots are in good shape and I love cooking with them. Scanpan suggests you heat them at medium temperature. This disappointed me because I thought they would take forever to heat up. Surprisingly they reach cooking temperature much faster than other pots I have that I start at almost High. So far they seem to cook evenly and sure clean up great. I cannot say enough good things about the people at Chef's Catalog where I ordered my Scanpan from. They were polite and sympathetic about the problem and took special care with the next set. They put the Scanpan carton inside a second carton and put bubble pack all around the inside, sending it via FedEx the same day they got the bad set. Three cheers for Chef's Catalog.